April 13, 2023

TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL

EDUCATION

DR MAXINE CLARKEPROF NIGEL HEALEY

Slide 1

April 13, 2023

• Part 1• Background and Issues (Maxine)

• Part 2• Practical Matters and Personal Experience

(Nigel)

• Questions (and answers??)

Slide 2

Overview

April 13, 2023

• Need for

- information

- justification

- benchmarking / improvement• It is for

- the academic community

- practitioners in the field

- universities

- organisations

- governments

Slide 3

Part 1: Why do research and who is it for?

April 13, 2023

• Funding• Who is the audience?• Timescales (incl. longitudinal research)• Practicality• Constraints (e.g. data protection)• Etc.

Slide 4

Part 1: Research bounded by…

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• Range of Issues– Mobility; policy; partnerships; collaborations; student

experience, teaching and learning, etc. etc.

• Range of Disciplines– Management; education; sociology; geography, etc.

• Range of Organisations / Individuals involved– Students (PhD, Masters); academics; OBHE; CIHE;

WES; IIE, etc.

Slide 5

Part 1: What’s already out there?

April 13, 2023

• Research in state of ‘flux’ (new and emerging)….• No set paradigm or philosophical thinking…• Allows ‘freedom’….

• Stances: • Positivisim v Interpretivism (and in-between)• (Counting and/or Understanding)

Slide 6

Part 1: Types of Research Methods

April 13, 2023

• Qualitative / Quantitative / Mixed

- questionnaire (paper, online, etc.)

- statistical analysis

- interview (structured, semi-structured, etc.)

- literature review

- Delphi technique

- etc.

Slide 7

Part 1: Methods

April 13, 2023

• BROOKS, R., WATERS, J. and PIMLOTT-WILSON, H., 2012. International education and the employability of UK students. British Educational Research Journal, 38(2), pp. 281-298.

• CARBONELL, J.A., 2013, 2013-last update, Still growing after all these years: Outward student mobility in the United Kingdom between 2007-08 and 2011-12. Available: http://cunningham.acer.edu.au/dbtw-wpd/textbase/ndrie/5409n.pdf [November 22, 2013].

• DALEY, A., 2007. Outbound student exchange at Australian and New Zealand universities: the effects of pre-departure decision-making, in-country experiences and post-sojourn outcomes, Griffith University.

• DURRANT, M. and DORIUS, C., 2007. Study Abroad Instruments: A Comparison of Survey Types and Experiences. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(1), pp. 33-53.

• GOLDSTEIN, S. and KIM, R., 2006. Predictors of US college students’ participation in study abroad programs: A longitudinal study. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30(4), pp. 507-521.

• HUDZIK, J. and STOHL, M., 2009. Modelling assessment of the outcomes and impacts of internationalisation. Measuring Success in the Internationalisation of Higher Education, Occasional Paper 22. Amsterdam: European Association for International Education EAIE.

• MCLEOD, M. and WAINWRIGHT, P., 2009. Researching the Study Abroad Experience. Journal of Studies in International Education, 13(1), pp. 66-71.

• MOLONY, J., SOWTER, B. and POTTS, D., 2011. QS Global Employer Survey Report 2011: How employers value an international study experience. London: QS Intelligence Unit.

• SPIERING, K. and ERICKSON, S., 2006. Study abroad as innovation: Applying the diffusion model to international education. International Education Journal, 7(3), pp. 314-322.

• TAJEDDINI, K. and MUELLER, S.L., 2009. Entrepreneurial characteristics in Switzerland and the UK: A comparative study of techno-entrepreneurs. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 7(1), pp. 1-25.

• WIERS-JENSSEN, J., 2011. Background and Employability of Mobile vs. Non-Mobile Students. Tertiary Education and Management, 17(2), pp. 79-100.

Slide 8

Part 1: Look at….

April 13, 2023

• Choose something that interests you• Prepare to compromise• Don’t get put off by the ‘world’ of academia• Don’t get put off by the terminology

Slide 9

Part 1: My experience….(PhD)

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• What are appropriate methods?• How do we get data?• How long does it take?• How can results be disseminated?• Personal experience

Slide 10

Part 2: Practical Matters and Personal Experience

April 13, 2023 Slide 11

Research paradigms (the ‘ologies’)Positivism Anti-Positivism

External, objective, independent of social actors

Ontology(what is reality?)

Socially constructed,subjective, may

change, multiple

Use observable data to test logically deduced hypotheses to generate knowledge

Epistemology(how do we acquire

knowledge?)

Use subjective interpretations and

motivations to inductively develop

knowledge

QuantitativeResearch

MethodologyQualitative

April 13, 2023 Slide 12

Choose a paradigm that fits the problem

Does smoking increase the risk of lung cancer?

Testable hypothesisCompare sample of smokers

and non-smokers

What drives paedophiles to sexually abuse children?

Build a theory of causationUse in-depth interviews with

convicted paedophiles

April 13, 2023

• For quantitative research:– Use existing (secondary) data

• HESA, NSS, UNESCO, OECD, OBHE, C-BERT, QS, THE

• Institutional data like applications, enrolments, GPA, progression, completion (‘big’ data)

– Grow your own (primary) data:• On-line surveys (Survey Monkey)• Questionnaires

Slide 13

How do we access data (1)?

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• For qualitative research:– Use existing (secondary) data:

• Books, reports and articles, websites, paintings and photographs

• These are records of what their creators thought and felt

– Grow you own (primary) data:• Ask or watch people• In-depth interviews, (focus) group

discussions, storytelling, ethnography, participant observation, shadowing

Slide 14

How do we access data (2)?

April 13, 2023

• Ethical approval:– ‘Does the project involve collecting and/or analysing

primary or unpublished data from, or about, living human beings?’

– Need to be able to:• Guarantee participant anonymity• Guarantee confidentiality and security of data• Gain informed consent• Allow participants to see transcripts of interviews before

analysis and redact data

• Need to identify willing participants

Slide 15

Health warnings with primary qualitative data

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• Longer than you expect• ‘Inside lags’:

– getting ethical approval

• ‘Outside lags’:– Finding cooperative participants– Scheduling and carrying out interviews– Transcribing interviews

Slide 16

How long does it take?

April 13, 2023

• Academic journals (double-blind refereed):– Higher Education, Higher Education Review, Higher Education

Quarterly

• Books, book chapters• Professional journals

– EIAE Forum

• On-line weekly publications:– University World News

• Conferences– EAIE, Going Global, NAFSA, QS-APPLE, APAIE, ACA

• Websites– Institutional repositories, academia.edu, blogs

Slide 17

Disseminating results

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• Project on the challenges of managing international branch campuses– Insider research– Logistically challenging to schedule interviews– Senior managers typically generous with their time– Results to date are fascinating

Slide 18

Personal experience

April 13, 2023

• The world is full of interesting research questions• Higher education can be improved by answering

many of these:– Why do students miss lectures?– Do students who miss lectures have lower attainment

than those who attend?

• As practitioners, you are in a unique position to frame and answer these questions

• Pick research questions that matter to you and a methodology that can answer the question

Slide 19

Conclusions